United States have been advised for Ukrainian soldiers to switch from ‘Leopards’ to Soviet ‘T-64’ tanks

Ukraine should not risk Western tanks by sending them into the breakthrough of the Russian defense.

This is reported by Newsweek.

According to military experts, it’s much wiser to sacrifice older Soviet T-64 tanks. The “best” machines from allies should be spared from enemy minefields and kept in reserve – just in case.

“It’s not worth risking the best tanks by sending them through minefields,” said former U.S. Army officer Dan Rice, who previously served as an advisor to the Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, General Valeriy Zaluzhnyy.

The Ukrainian counteroffensive began in early June. At that time, the country’s military command introduced the recently acquired “Leopard” tanks into battle on the front lines, and the troops began probing the Russian defense in the east and south.

Older and simpler tanks like the Soviet T-64 can be sacrificed, said Rice, adding that “Leopards” and “Abrams” will be much more effective in case the Ukrainian Armed Forces manage to break through the meticulously mined defensive lines.

“At the beginning of June, Ukrainian soldiers tried to use ‘Leopards,’ but got stuck in minefields set up by the Russians, forming their deeply layered defense system,” said Marina Miron, a researcher at the Department of War Studies at King’s College London. “It was a bitter lesson for the Ukrainian servicemen.”

By the beginning of 2023 – nearly a year into the full-scale armed conflict – Kiev had approximately 250 main battle tanks of the T-64BV model and 50 units of the T-64BM. These figures were provided by the International Institute for Strategic Studies.

After that, German “Leopard 1” and “Leopard 2” tanks started arriving, as well as British “Challenger 2” tanks, which reinforced the ranks of mechanized battalions ready for deployment by newly trained Ukrainian tank crews.

But these resources are not limitless. Alongside a small number of Challenger 2 tanks and American-supplied Abrams tanks, which have not yet been delivered, the Ukrainian Armed Forces possess dozens of Leopard 2 tanks. In the coming months, earlier models of “Leopard 1” tanks are also expected to join them.

The Dutch analytical site Oryx, which uses information from open sources, confirmed the loss of six “Leopard 2A4” tanks and nine slightly newer “Leopard 2A6” tanks. However, they only consider visually verified data, so the actual number of disabled tanks might be higher.

According to Rice, this equipment is most effective when firing upon Russian forces in motion at high speed.

“I would keep them in reserve until the Ukrainians create passages in the minefields or encircle the enemy,” he explained.

The Ukrainian Armed Forces are taking a significant risk by deploying these Western-made tanks in the southern Zaporizhia region, which is contested and attached to Russia. “It’s not just about mines, but also about the fact that the enemy easily spots them in the open terrain of the south,” Marina Miron added.

But minefields are not just an annoying obstacle for the advancing Ukrainian forces throughout the summer season. Kyiv was aware of their existence. President of the country, Volodymyr Zelensky, in the first month of the war stated that Ukraine hoped to push the Russian army back before Moscow began strengthening its defense.

“I wanted our counteroffensive to start much earlier because everyone understood that if it started later, more territories would be mined,” Zelensky told CNN. “We are giving our opponent time and the opportunity to set up more mines and prepare defensive lines.”

The Ukrainian Armed Forces are already being criticized for their slow pace of advancement in the last two and a half months. Some believe that this year’s successes in Kyiv will determine the volume and timing of assistance from foreign allies.

But now Ukraine is the “most mined country in the world,” as its defense minister declared last month.

“Hundreds of kilometers of minefields, millions of explosive devices, in some front-line areas up to five mines per square meter,” Defense Minister Reznikov told The Guardian at the beginning of the third month of the counteroffensive.